Old Soul 1/2 - chapter four.
                                  by
                   Francis Bourque <fbourque@abacom.com>


Standards' disclaimers applied.
It is mainly a Ranma 1/2 fanfic with nuances of Slayers until now,
and some reference to Sailor Moon and other series in future chapters.
I don't own any of their characters or series.


      Begun:  7 September 1999
Last Update: 14 September 1999

Version 1.0 revision three.

<> Panda' signs.
() Sound.

Good news!  I have a site where someone offers me to keep 'Old Soul 1/2'.

"Ranchan Totally Crossed Out": http://home.earthlink.net/~tannim/

A very good site for these kinds of fanfic.
I love crossovers and Old Soul 1/2 will begin to expand very soon...

Warning: It's not a lemon.

Chapter four: "A date!  Are you out of your mind?!"

[Morning]

Akane was kissing passionately Ranma-chan, who was returning the kiss tenfold.
They were in bed, doing all the things young couples did normally without
being inhibited in the least . . .

"Ahhhhhhhhh!  Pervert!" cried Akane after awakening abruptly from that dream.
She wasn't even sure who was the pervert.  That concerned her greatly too.


[Diner room]

Akane kept her eyes on her breakfast.  She didn't dare to look at Ranma-chan.
She's very embarrassed just thinking of her dreams about her.

Ranma was concerned a little about Akane.  But she was so hungry that
she didn't look at her more than two or three times.  Maintaining a
shield against her father didn't help either.

When they were finished, Akane cried:

"Time to go!  Hurry or we will be late again!"

Akane then grappled Ranma's left arm.  She blushed at the contact,
which was remarked by Nabiki, and sprint out to school.


[Lunch time]

"Have you heard what happened to Kuno?" asked Sayuri.

"Yeah.  Ranma seemed to have sent him way out of Tokyo." replied Yuka.

"That US military base wasn't a good place to land either." added Sayuri.

"They will release him tomorrow.  Why they couldn't just keep him?!"
half-joked Yuka.


[Under a tree, same time]

"So Lina, when will we see your boyfriend?" asked Yukina,
a timid girl of medium height not much more developed than Ranma,
green eyes, long blond hair and in a school uniform.

"Yukina, I'm not a pervert!  I prefer girls anyway." replied Ranma,
catching too late what she had just said.

"Eu, I mean . . .  Oh! I give up.  You wouldn't understand even
if I try to explain all about me." muttered Ranma.

Yukina heard it thought.

"It not a shame to liked girls, just don't try anything with me.
 Some of my best friends are like that too." explained Yukina,
not wanting Ranma to be afraid of her because of shames now that
she had shared her big secret with her.  And she loves gossips anyway.

"It's more complicated than that, but thank!" finally replied Ranma.

"It's no problem.  I won't tell either." said Yukina.

"And don't call me Lina please."

"Why?  Nabiki said it was your name and that Ranma was just a nick name."

"She did what!  I can't believe it!  I will have a talk with her tonight."
said Ranma, with a serious expression in her eyes, which mean business.

[Tonight]

They had finished supper since two hours.  Akane was at a friend house.
The two fathers were drinking, playing and cheating as usual and Kasumi
had gone out with Dr. Tofu on a date.

They had the house for themselves.

"Hey!  Nabiki!  Can we have a talk, please?" asked Ranma.

"Sorry, have to go!" said Nabiki, and tried to run for it.

"'Stop'!" yelled Ranma.

Nabiki for her part wasn't as stop as she had like.  She was able to
quit the house, but the 'stop' spell had stopped her near the koi pond.

"(Splash!)"

The momentum was another matter thought.

"You will pay for that!" cried Nabiki, after resurfacing the water.

"Sorry!  I didn't mean to get you wet." said Ranma behind her.

After some thought, Nabiki asked her:

"Why I'm not paralyzed?"

"That spell is a 'stop' spell.  As long as nothing touch you,
 or in your case wet you, you can't move for two minutes
 more or less." explained Ranma.

"It's Good to know." thought Nabiki.


[Nabiki bedrooms, after she had changed of clothes]

"So what did you want?" asked Nabiki.

"Why had you said to anyone that my name was Lina?"

"Simple.  Your scam with Ryoga can't work if you were called or known
 as Ranma Saotome."

"Yeah, it makes sense.  But you could explain to me the story I heard
 at school about my 'boyfriend' and me going on a date?  I never talk of
 anything like that." asked Ranma.

"I'm not responsible for all the gossip at school, Lina." Nabiki said,
smiling like the cat who had ate the canary, and added:

"Before I forget.  Whatever you do, don't go on a date before Sunday."

"Why I'd wanted to go on a date with Akane anyway!" exclaimed Ranma.

"You do have a thing for my little sister then, thank for the info!"
said Nabiki, even more happy than before.

"Very funny!  Oh, forget it!" said Ranma and went out of the bedroom in
closing the door very hard.  Some pictures come uneven.


[Schoolyard, morning]

"Coward, no one even had the bravery to be here but I, the Blue Thunder of
 Furikan High!" shouted Kuno Tatewaki.  Thunder and lightning seemed to
crash in the distance.  Kuno was trying new effect to honor his
'Goddess of Lightning'.

He was released from the US base only two hours ago.
He didn't lose any time to greet his two loves.


[In view of school]

"Akane, for the last time, don't call me 'Lina'." Ranma asked her.

"But it more funs like that." Akane teased her.

They heard the thunder and saw a flash in the distance and Ranma said:

"Do you thing the Baka express has returned?"

"Sound liked it." said Akane, not very happy at the news.

They enter in the schoolyard to the delight of Kuno, who did his speech again.
The ten other times were just practices.

"Welcome my loves, I, the Blue Thunder of Furikan High," began Kuno.

They all waited two minutes for the thunder.

"Sasuke!" suddenly yelled Kuno.

"Yes Master?" Sasuke said after appearing before Kuno.

"Where were the Thunder and Lighting?"

"Sorry Master.  The machine was surcharged by the new effect of the Lightning
 you had requested.  It will be a week before it's functional again."

For their part, Ranma and Akane was talking:

"What a moron, not even able to do Thunder and Lightning by himself!"

"I don't know how either, Ranma." replied Akane to that.

"You don't either use them to impress the girls, guys I meant." rectified Ranma.

"As if I had wanted to do that."

"Do you think I should provide him the special effect?" said Ranma,
having a good spell in mind for this occasion.

"It can be fun.  Just be sure to only hurt him!"

"Ok.  'Thunder Strike'!" yelled Ranma.

She concentrated to send Thunder at Kuno.
She just forgot a little something.
Thunder was a sound mainly.

"(BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM)"

"Can you repeat that?" asked Ranma after the shock wave had passed them.

"......" said Akane.  Her lips were moving but no sound was heard.

"I didn't hear you!" she said.

Akane then took out her mallet and was running after Ranma, yelling:

"RANMA NO BAKA!"

"WAAM!  Crash!  Smash!" was only heard by us, because all the people,
in a five hundred meters of distance, were deaf as a rock.


[Tendo Dojo, later]

"Hello Akane, you returned from school earlier than usual.
 Something wrongs?" asked Kasumi when Akane enter the dinner room
with Ranma who was a little out of it.

She was nearly violet in some place.
But it was Kasumi's perception.

"That Baka used a spell of Thunder on Kuno.  She just forgot that Thunder
 was a sound and used it a ground level." explained Akane, after trying to
read Kasumi's lips without success.

"We can't hear you.  We are both deaf." after Akane said that,
she took Ranma arm and guide her to her own bedroom.

"Oh my!" was the only thing Kasumi could say.


[Supper.  Dinner room]

"Stop that Akane," Ranma began, but seeing Akane was very angry at her
and was menacing her with her mallet of doom.

"I'm sorry already." apologized Ranma for a hundred times since the disaster
at school.

"Not just that, Baka!  You break all the windows in a kilometer around
 the school, sent Kuno to the hospital, Sasuke too.  And my head won't
 stop to hurt either." complained Akane.

"Gee.  I didn't know." said Ranma, and applied her right hand on Akane
to her surprise, and said:

"'Dicleary'!"

Akane was startled to be a lot better.  She didn't hurt as much either.

"Thank." she finally said.

Something bothers her about the name of that spell but she can't remember
what it was.


[Sitting-room]

Ranma enters the room while Akane was seeing an anime at the TV.

"What kind of anime are you looking at?" asked Ranma.

"Slayers.  It's a new episode." replied Akane, but she wasn't really
listening to Ranma.  She was still angry about the spell.

"Ok then.  I will leave you alone." she said and returned in her bedroom to
find a way to do a thunder spell a lot less messy because it had hurt,
even thought Akane's mallet has hurt a lot worse.

At the TV:

"But Lina, we just ate less than two hours ago." protested Gourry.

"I'm hungry!  Did you thought these fireballs were easy to cast?!"
she complained.


[Next day.  Lunch time]

"Lina!  I found you!" cried Ryoga loudly.

'Lina' was startled out of eating one of her rice cake Akane had made for
lunch.  She'd had to use a spell to purify it before eating it though.

"Where have you been?" she asked Ryoga, after he joined her under
the shade of the tree where she had been herself.

"I don't know exactly.
 I was on a city with space ships, flying cars and architectures really weird,
 it was in America because all of them were speaking English.  After that
 I think it was in New York, but for the rest I'm not sure." he finished.

Ranma rolled her eyes.

"Are you sure you didn't switch planets too?"

"Switch planets?!" he asked, not understanding.

"Nothing important.  Just thinking aloud." she replied.

"Hi," said Akane from behind them.

"Hey, Akane!  Watch whom I just found!" exclaimed Ranma after Akane had sat
down with them.

"Ryoga, you got lost way too easy.  Ran . . .   I meant Lina,
 will have to put a magical compass on you if you want to stop
 to be always lost." said Akane.

"Wait a minute.  Who say I can do such a thing!" protested Ranma.

"You can't?  A sorceress of your caliber?!" Akane teased her.

"I never needed that kind of spell before.  I learned them,
 but didn't have the practical use for them until now." explained Ranma,
peeved to be doubt like that.

"Why you don't try it on Ryoga then?" asked Akane.

"It's not that easy.  I don't know how Ryoga could get lost so easily.
 I even thought that he was teleporting with all the weird places he's able
 to describe." she explained, and proceeded to finish eating.

"Oh.  Too bad!" replied Akane and proceeded to do the same.

"(Drrriiiiiiiinnnggg!)"

"Hey, I'm not finish!" protested Akane.

She then pack her things and ran to her next class with Ranma not far behind.

Ryoga remained there, not understanding what they were talking about.

He decided to just waited here.  Now than he'd found Lina,
nothing will force him to move.


[After class]

Akane and Ranma were searching Ryoga after the end of class,
but Akane found him first behind another tree and approached him.

"Hey, Ryoga.  We weren't sure to find you.  Do you want to accept the
 invitation for supper?" Akane asked him gently not to startle him too much.

"Hi.  I'd like that, but I'm not sure how to ask Lina on a date.
 Maybe you can help me?" Ryoga asked her, blushing a little.

"I don't know.  She isn't a normal kind of girl.  I will have to ask Nabiki
 to help you with that." Akane told him and continued: "But I wasn't referring
 to a date." she teased him.

"Oh!" he could only reply, blushing much more than before for his mistake.

"It's ok.  Just don't ask me out on a date else I'd have to beat the craps
 out of you." she teased and warned him at the same time, half serious about it.

"No problem!" he replied very fast.

"Hey, I found the two of you.  You were going on a date or what?" Ranma asked
them after she had approached them and hear only the end of what they were
talking about.

"NO! Nothing like that!" denied Ryoga in a panic.

Akane was a little hurt by how bad Ryoga had reacted but decided to
forgive him this time.

"Calm down!  I was just teasing." Ranma explained to him.

"Hey, we will be late again for supper if we don't go now." exclaimed Akane
as she took both the hands of Ranma and Ryoga and started to run, not noticing
how they reacted to that contact with her.

"Hheeeeeeyyyyyyy!" can be heard from the two, caused by the fast running
Akane did after taking their hands.

A good thing she wasn't using the rooftop too.


[Tendo Dojo, before supper]

"Father, have you seen GAELE?" asked Kasumi to her father.

"Who's Gaele?" he asked, not remembering any other guests.

"It's the floating gem Ranma had with her when she came here." she explained.

"I didn't see it." he replied, not all that comfortable with a floating gem.

"Thank father." and she continued her attempted to find it.
After all it helped her greatly to do her shores.

The Panda sweated a lot during all their exchanged.


[Supper time]

"Pop, see who came for supper.  Remember Ryoga Hibiki?" Ranma asked her father.

Ranma had just entered the dinner room with Akane and Ryoga.
Nabiki was already here along with the two fathers.

"<Yes!  And you are late.>" replied the Panda with his sign.

Ryoga was a little incredulous by the Panda but decided than a little
weirdness can't hurt.

"Lina, have you seen GAELE?" Kasumi asked Ranma, insisting on the name.

"Eu, Gaele?!  Who's that?" asked Ranma, with the same ignorance than
Soun earlier.

"You know, your flying gem.  I named it.  I hoped than you don't mind?"
Kasumi asked, already sure Ranma won't mind.

"No.  Not at all.  But why Gaele?"

"Its stand for 'Gem Air ELEmental', I thought such a pretty and useful gem
 should have a name." replied Kasumi, with her air of complete innocence,
which was truth anyway.

"Useful?  It could find lost things easily at least." replied Ranma.

"More than that.  It was following me the other day as I was dusting
 when it began to do it for me.  Since that day I was able to have more
 time for myself." Kasumi explained, not knowing how weird she was sounding.

"Oh!  And you said than you couldn't find it?" Ranma asked her but was eyeing
her father.

When she saw him sweated a lot, Ranma asked:
"Pop!  What have you done with Gaele?"

"<I'm just a cute Panda.>" he replied, while he was playing with a beach ball.

"Would you like to be one permanently too?" she added.

In a flash they all saw Genma at her feet.

"<No, I didn't sell it for 10000 yens.  It's not me.  I swear it!>"

"You are pathetic!  I will have to ask Mom if you are really my father one
 of these days.  So anyway, you sold Gaele to whom exactly?"

"<No, don't do that.  I don't want to die!>"

"You sold Gaele to the Yakusa or what?"

"<No, much worse!  I was talking about your mother!>"

Major facefault around them.
Kasumi was too worried for her little friend to do it this time though.

After everyone sits down again, Ranma said:
"I think than I should begin the spell to lock your curse.  Too bad!"

"'Stop'!" she immobilized him before he can run away and give her the time
she needed to do the more complex spell.

She pointed her two hands at him and began singing:
"'No hot water shalt affects thee,
  Only cold water could transform thee,
  One the day when the sun don't shine,
  This curse shalt leaves thee'!"

A built up of energy in Ranma was easy to see, especially with her glowing red.
At the end of the spell, that energy went directly into the Panda.

"Hey, it's worked!" Ranma was congratulating herself.

All the others were shock beyond belief.  They had just witnessed someone
putting a curse on someone else.

"You just cursed your father to remained a Panda?" Nabiki asked,
after overcoming her own shock.

"Something like that." replied Ranma.

She was very happy to have succeeded in her first attempt to give a curse,
and it was a payback for being pushed in the spirit's pool by him.

"Don't worry sis.  The next eclipse is only a week away." replied Kasumi,
always happy to be useful.

"Yes, but if you don't return Gaele before that eclipse, I will recast
 that spell, but this time you will have to wait seven years or go to
 Brazil in four months." Ranma explained to a frozen Panda.

She had studied very carefully all these events in astrology after all.

"I think I will go study.  Bye!" said Nabiki and hurry to her room.
No way she'd remained here, she didn't want a curse of her own.

"Lina, what are you?" asked Ryoga.

Ryoga was worried.  He can recognize black magic when he says it,
and it was definitely black magic he just witnesses.

Ranma had just realized than what she did was black magic and could be
badly perceived by the people around her.

"Sorry Ryoga.  I'm a sorceress, probably the most powerful on Earth."
Ranma explained to him, and believing it too.

"Ok.  It time to go, bye!" Ryoga said and proceeded to go the same way than
Nabiki.  He got lost before her bedroom though.

"What is it today?!  They didn't even eat before going!" muttered Ranma,
conscious of being the reason for these retreated.

When she raises her head, it was to see than only Akane and Kasumi had remained.
They look at her with sympathetic eyes.

"Thank you, you two.  We can eat now and I'm very hungry, so no left over!"
exclaimed Ranma and broke eyes contact with Akane and proceeded to eat.


[Next day, on the way to school]

"You meant that Nabiki tricked you into going on a date with Ryoga?"
asked Akane.

Though she'd asked Nabiki to trap Ranma, she felt guilty about it.

"Yeah, I don't understand how she was able to do it either." protested Ranma.

They were walking to school in time for once.

"What day was chosen?" asked Akane.

"Sunday, at supper time." Ranma replied abruptly to her.
She was very annoyed since she was trick by Nabiki that morning.

"Why so moody?" Akane asked her after receiving that kind of treatment.

"I hope I don't need to explain to you what happens once a month
 to all girls?" she replied, sarcastic.

"Oh!  That day!  Sorry!" Akane backpedaled.

Akane remembers too well the kind of curse Ranma had put on her own father.

Seeing this, Ranma had guessed what Akane was thinking and said:

"Don't worry.  My powers are out of sync for today.
 I can't throw a 'Fireball' even if I'd wanted too." Ranma explained.

Nabiki was very lucky that was her time of the month too else
she would have been more nasty about the date.

In that day, her magical powers were out of sync.  Some of her spells like
'Fireball' are near zero, where others are out of control.  Lightning for one
thing is ten times more powerful in that day when the effect was at its
maximum.  'Fly' worked just fine though, along with some of the more
advanced spells which worked fine too in any other days.  Even some of the
spells she was unable to cast normally, among the more advanced, seemed to
worked just fine at that time.  She'd to be very careful not to cast a spell
too powerful, else entire building can be destroyed.


[Lunch time]

Ranma and Akane were eating while talking of Ranma's problem about her power.

"So as I had said, I can't do magic without extreme cautious.
 It annoying not to be able to cast a 'Fireball', even a small
 one is not possible.  It was my better attack again perverts
 and my 'Lightning Strike' could kill easily if I use it now."
explained Ranma between mouthfuls of food.

They heard thunder and flashed of lightning in the distance.

"Do you see what I meant by lack of control?" Ranma told her.

"So what could you do then?" asked Akane curious.

"I use martial art.  I didn't forget it when I began to learned magic,
 you known."

"Oh!  It makes sense." replied Akane to that.


Hiroshi was spying on them behind a tree.  After hearing than Ranma couldn't
use her power, he went to find Daisuke.  Daisuke said it to some of the girls,
who said it to other friends.  Before lunch ends, all the students and even
some senshis  knew that Ranma was powerless.


[During math class]

Ranma was very nervous.  All the boys were spying on her whenever they could
since the beginning of class, which meant a lot of the time.

Senshi Tokihami wasn't pleased one bit by this lack of attention from all the
boys in her class.  She had heard how Ranma was powerless, an easy date and
other nonsense.  She then decided to intervene.

"I know about your petty challenges.  I won't tolerate any in my class,
 so you can already stop your sparring matches with your eyes." the senshi
announced suddenly when all the boys had again all theirs attention on Ranma.

"Pervert!" the senshi added to herself when they didn't stopped looking
at Ranma.

"Lina, in the hall!" she called to Ranma.  She had heard that she was using
a nick name in the first few days.

"What I did?" Ranma protested after recalling that Lina was her official name.

"You were disturbing class.  Now go!" ordered senshi Tokihami exasperate.
She can't after all send all the boys out there.

"Seeenshhhiiii, cccoulld wwe kkkeept heeeer coompaaany?" asked half the class,
not a girl among them.

Tokihami facefault.  She decided to quite her posted the next days
for the seven times that week.


[After class in the schoolyard]

"Akane, do you think they heard about my lack of power?" asked Ranma
to an Akane which had her jaw dropped the lowest possible at the moment.

In front of them, they had all the boys from school and some boys who didn't
went to school here, two girls and even a young senshi of physic ed.

Ranma just gulped and asked the Senshi:

"Senshi, what are you doing here?"

"Sorry, but all the sport clubs had asked me to be here to see their victory.
 I won't interfere." he replied and took his distance from the crowd.

"Ok.  So what are you doing here?" she asked the crowd, already knowing
the answer but she wanted to give them one change before beating
the craps out of them.

A boy from the Kendo club quite the crowd and advance to face her and said:

"We challenge you for a date." he replied.

"I just wanted to know if you knew the penalty for losing?" Ranma asked
to all of them.

"What penalty?" asked some of the new boys here today.

"Just that by Amazon laws, I have the right to kill any of you.
 A good thing for you than that laws don't apply normally here."
Ranma explained, hopping to scared most of them.


". . . Amazon laws.  never hear of it . . ."
"What is she talking about . . ."
" . . . all I wanted was a date."
". . . I'm out of here!"
It was some of the most common things they discuss among them.

After half of the boys had ran away in fear.

"So I began with who exactly?" Ranma asked, taking her most feral appearance.
That didn't worked well though.  Most of them were perverts after all and
it make her looked more kawai.

"All at once." said one.

"It's more safe." added another.  He was knocked unconscious by some
of the boys.

"You are right, because even as a group you aren't any challenge." she said
to them.

Akane had taken control of her jaw for her part and remained at her side.

"So be it." Ranma only said and added:

"'Haste'!" she said a spell of speed and disappeared.

To reappear two seconds later at the same place.

"What happened?" asked Akane to her.

"My spell of speed was one which was out of control.  Normally it speeds five
 to ten times, but now it thirty times.  I didn't even run because the air
 was too solid, and I had compressed the time of duration to gain more speed."
Ranma explained to her as if in a class.

"But what did you do?  Nothing changes."

"I just used paralytic pressure's point on the boys and others
 less effective one on the two girls." Ranma added.

"Ok.  Then we can go?" Akane asked.

"Yes.  C'mon."

Ranma and Akane just jumped over all the crowds of paralyzed boys and girls
and went home.


[Tendo's house]

"How long before these pressures point wear off?" asked Akane after
they had sat eating.

"Ten to fifteen minutes for the girls and three to four hours for the boys."
replied Ranma.

"But they had announced rain for tonight."

"I knew that.  I just wanted to be sure they know what I thought of them."
replied Ranma, a happy smile on her face.

"You are evil.  You know that?!" Akane teased her.

"Just for that comment, you won't eat desert tonight!" Ranma teased her,
took and ate her desert before Akane could stop her.

Akane then took Ranma's desert and ate it too.

"I see my training paid off." Ranma said, all smiles and happy to see
Akane applying the truth Anything Goes for the first time.

"Yes Senshi.  But I think that your father just applied it too." Akane teased
her even more, nearly tearing apart trying to kept from laughing.

Ranma turns her head to her food and saw that it was all gone.
No need to say where.

"Pop, have you seen Gaele around?" she asked him.  He was still a Panda
since she had locked his curse.

"<No!>" was the only thing he had write on his sign.

"I should modify the curse for your curse to be only reverse if
 Gaele is in visual range of Kasumi.  What do you think of that?"
she asked the Panda.  She wasn't about to explain to him than
that kind of spell was too complex to be easily cast, but what
he didn't know can only hurt him.  The saying wasn't exactly like that,
but who care?!

"<Nabiki has it!>" the Panda had written in a panic.
He didn't want to be lock as a Panda if Nabiki sells the gem.

Nabiki was stunned speechless, mouth gapping:

"But, but, . . . "

"So, Nabiki.  Where is Gaele now?" Ranma asked from behind her.
She'd moved before Nabiki had begun to react to Genma's statement.

"It wasn't moving.  It was dead, so what the fuss?" asked Nabiki
after regained her composure.

"It wasn't dead.  Just out of power." Ranma explained to her.

When Nabiki didn't seem to react at all, Ranma elaborated:

"Gaele, before I came here, was always with me and the transfers of power
were easy.  But since its helped Kasumi at home, it takes a lot more power
than only floating around and I didn't empower it since the last two days."
she explained to all of them.

"And Nabiki, if Kasumi doesn't have Gaele with her when I return from supper,
I will do something very nasty." Ranma warned her.  She didn't need to say
what, Nabiki will surely be able to find the worse thing possible by herself.

"Later!" exclaimed Ranma and she went outside to eat.


[On the way to a new okonomiyaki's restaurant]

Ranma was minding her how business when Ryoga saw her.

"Hey, Lina!" he called to her.

Ranma just moaned for herself and said:

"Want to come at that new restaurant in town?  They serve okonomiyaki."
she asked him.  She was very hungry herself and didn't think too far about
the meaning of that invitation.

"Sure.  I'm sorry for how I reacted yesterday.  Magic wasn't exactly a thing
 I'm used to deal with." he apologizes to her, hopping to be forgiven.

"No big deal!  C'mon Ryoga, I'm hungry!" exclaimed Ranma.


[Ukyou's Okonomiyaki]

"What will it be?" asked Ukyou to the young couple.

"A double beefs okonomiyaki for me." asked Ranma.

"Same things." replied Ryoga, distracted by Lina's presence.

"Right up, sugar!" Ukyou agreed to Ryoga.

After Ukyou went to prepare their orders.


"Ryoga, I have been thinking about your little problem of direction.
 I had wanted to try something if it's ok with you?" asked Ranma.

"I hope you don't intend to transform me into a black piglet or anything else?"
asked Ryoga, half joking about that possibility.

Ryoga remembered that crazy girl with her pig fetish.  Really scary even
though she was the first girl to be interest in him after he had defected
her sumo pig.  She loved pigs a little too much for his taste.

"Nothing like that.  I don't have enough control yet to transform anything in
 a form I don't knew well." she explained.

For some reasons that didn't really reassure him.
His look sends a clear message to her about what he think about that.

"Two double beef okonomiyaki ready to eat!" announced Ukyou
to them after leaving their orders on the table.

While they began to eat, Ranma continues their talk:

"Anyway, what I have in mind has nothing to do with transformation.
 First, I need to follow you while you get lost.  I will just have to cast
 a spell of localization which will detect any Space/Temporal disturbance."

"Why cast a spell?" he asked, not liking very much any kind of magic.

"It's just that I'm not sure you remained on Earth when you get lost.
 Some places you had described to me were clearly not on Earth." she replied
trying not to laugh when she saw his face.

"Oh!" he didn't facefault, but that sure had stunned him.

"I didn't learn that spell yet though.  You will have to wait a little before
 we could try it, and I had wanted to possess a functional teleport spell
 before, just in case." finished Ranma.

"We will speak of it again when you are ready." he replied,
relieved not to have to deal with magic.

"C'mon, I'm finished.  Let go!" exclaimed Ranma and prepared to
leave after she had give a big tip to the boy who had served them.

"(SPLASH!)" was heard from outside.

"Don't move.  I will check it out!" Ranma called to them and said:
"'Haste'!" and disappeared to reappeared at the side of the indoor.

"It's a monster as I saw it.  I'm not in total control of my power today and
 I had wanted the two of you to remain here.  It's more safe.
 I'm more dangerous than that monster anyway." and she reinitiated
her 'Haste' spell and disappeared again.

They didn't do that though.  They were both martial artists after all.

They proceeded to the door and looked outside.  The biggest monster
they had ever sees stood here.  Not that Ukyou had see many before.
It was eight feet tall, in a semi-humanoid form, half solid, half water,
with all different shades of blue and green.

They saw Lina doing circle around it many times over, while dodging
the blasts of magical water the Youma was shouting.  A good thing too,
the blasts had put big holes of one meter into the road.
Then she stopped and shouted with her fist ready to a lower punch:

"'Hiryu Shoten Ha Inverse Effect'!" she yelled.

The usual twister from a 'Hiru Shorten Ha' was in reverse and direct
at the ground.  The Water's Monster was splashed literally on the ground.
Ranma had jumped out of the way just in time to avoid getting wet.

"I was worried for a moment here." she said to Ryoga and the boy from Ukyou's.

They both were still looking at the last place the Youma was before
Ranma had smashed it on the ground.
It was slowly turning to dust even if compose of water before.

Ranma was a little out of breath and thought to herself:
"A good thing I have increased my Ki using magic.
 Now, if only I was able too empowered gem with magic,
 but to date that didn't work too well."

"Lina, what was that?!" asked Ryoga, wanting to get lost for one
of the rare times in his life.

"Just a Youma.  I was unable to use magic without destroying half the
 neighborhood, so I had to use martial art." Ranma replied.

"But, It was magic!" protested Ryoga, still seeing the twister smashing
the Youma.

"You should know that martial art and magic are very similar in many aspects.
 One use Ki where the other use Magic.  The more one became good at using
 either of them, the more they are the same in the end." she explained to him.

Ryoga thought about that a moment and asked:
"Can you teach me that move?"

"Sorry, it's an Amazon secret technique.  It's forbidden to teach to any
 outsider." she replied, sorry to disappoint him.

"C'mon, I have to go back to the Tendo's." she added.

"I have to think about something.  See you later." Ryoga replied
to that and went his way.

"Ok, Bye!" she said and jumped on the rooftop and speed away.


[Juuban's District, Ami's house]

"(Bip, Bip, Bip)" was heard from the Mercury's computer.

"Ami-chan, your computer just 'Bip'!" Mina called to her.

"I heard it.  One moment." Ami replied and proceeded to open her minicomputer
and check the readings.

"It has detected a Youma in Nerima during a period of
 ninety seconds point three,  and it disappeared completely
 after that.  No other portal was open to explain it sudden
 disappearance either.  I conclude then it was destroyed by
 someone else than us." she explained to Mina, Lita, Rei and Serena.

Serena was out of it as usual, but Rei was the more eager to learn more.

"And nothing more?" asked Rei, she was trying to take the computer from Ami,
even if she didn't know how to use it.

"Sorry guys, the readings were not long enough to get more.
 My computer wasn't doing any active scan of Nerima, just passives ones."
she explained to them, apologies in her voice.

When she didn't get any reaction from them, she continued:
"I will setups an active scan for the next readings.
 It the best I can do until another Youma appeared there."

[End of chapter four]


[Martial Art]

'Hiryu Shoten Ha Inverse Effect'

   This technique was the same than the 'Hiryu Shoten Ha' except it use the
cold chi of an adversary and the hot ki of Ranma.  It's more draining then
the original technique, but if done correctly it created a reverse twister
direct at the ground.  Its smash to ground any adversary or in the case of
that Water's Monster (Youma to be exact) it became very deadly.

   Warning: Don't use it if you don't know how.
Contrary to the 'Hiryu Shoten Ha', this technique can affect you
if it isn't done properly.

   It's an improvement Ranma did after learning the original technique from
Cologne after she was curses.

[Magic spells]

'Haste'

  It speeds Ranma from five to ten times.  If it's her time of the month,
it can excess thirty time, but the air became nearly solid at that speed
if she ran or move fast herself.  It a good time to think though.

'Dicleary'

   Spell she remembered from Lina Inverse memory.  She just didn't know where
it came from or how she was able to use it by instinct alone.  It removes all
toxins and exhaustion from the body.


[End of notes]


Chapter five: "Experimental magic is always unpredictable at best!"

In this chapter Ranma will go to war literally among other things.

The biggest chapter to date with more than 50K when I will finish writing it.

Salut bien !